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YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#461

Post by drc511 »

xiaoma wrote: post #152
clamprecht wrote: post #4

Wow. We often wonder how the Bay Area would be unseated as startup capital of the world. Maybe it'll be the US's immigration problem.

I completely agree that visas are a problem but I disagree that they will be "the problem" to unseat Silicon Valley as the world nexus of startups. I've spent most my adult life in Asia and have lived in several countries and cities that claim to be very serious about becoming the next tech hub. None of them have very liberal immigration policies. All have visas for highly skilled workers, all have visas for entrepre…

What YC has to do - is classical very very early Symptom Ecosystem dissolution.i.e. SV (i know its too early to say so). Its very hard to disrupt such woven ecosystem due to inherent resiliency and there is higher chances it will survive but this is unprecedented . I checked few VC twitter feeds, they are leaning towards Canada ,very early ,very slow but still unprecedented.Networks are strong as long as the inflection point. One can watch this video i attached here to understand how ecosystem fails without the participation from value serving members and how quickly it may :by the way this is all facts checked. Here is vedio how ecosystems are fragile : http://bit.ly/2mqDdjf .

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#462

Post by xienze »

crazy1van wrote: post #444
l8again wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am curious to know why you think that's a relevant question?

Based on their statement YC believes the travel ban will affect their ability to conduct interviews. I was trying to get a rough feel for the magnitude of the effect by looking at previous YC startups.

I think you probably already know this, but this is simply a way for YC to virtue signal. There's basically no one from the affected countries interviewing in the first place.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#464

Post by nostrademons »

neptunespear wrote: post #402
ng12 wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you still live in the 1980's? Belle Haven is not gangland.

The area bordered by US 101, Willow Road and the Union Pacific tracks is an exception. However, the rest of EMP makes Vancouver's Downtown Eastside or even the neighbourhood of Whalley in Surrey look like the most peaceful, crime-free utopia that has ever existed. At least we don't have Nortenos and Surenos blowing each others' heads off like in adjacent East Palo Alto.

Even EPA has come up in the world dramatically in the last few years. As of 2014, its violent crime rate was half that of SF, only 25% more than San Jose, and roughly double that of Mountain View. I'd consider Mountain View a very safe place; EPA is basically turning into just another Silicon Valley suburb.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#465

Post by TorKlingberg »

davidw wrote: post #362
javajosh wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider that Trump actually can't do much. The Executive branch has the most visible power is at border crossings, particularly at airports. It's the fundamental power of group leadership (ownership?): "Who's in, and who's out." Trump is intoxicated on the prospect of wielding that power. "How things might go". Hmm. There are three ways things could go rotten. Some all or none could happen: a) Muslim registration, i…

I don't think it's that bad yet, and it may well not end up that way. I think David Frum's article was pretty good in terms of how things might go badly: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/how-to-... My wife has a green card though, so who knows. They've already shown they have no regard for things like that.

That was a really good read, thank you.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#466

Post by mediocrejoker »

spitfire wrote: post #171
chollida1 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Canadian visa might sound appealing at first blush but won't help for ycombinator founders as far as I know. To be eligible you need to have funding from a canadian venture fund, see below. I guess ycombinator could setup a Canadian fund and apply for the funding eligibility, but with the principles being mostly American and living in the US, I'm guessing it would be a very tough sell. http://www.cic.gc.ca/englis…

Oh please no. Leave the VC reality distortion field south of the border please. We don't need YC ruining Canada with hopped up "startup" bros. If we even need more VC firms (I don't think we do), let indie VC or something like it come up. Edit: This isn't meant to mean people shouldn't start companies here. They should. But they should do it firmly grounded in reality, not based in SV VC world which has very little t…

Haven't pretty much all of the largest tech companies been started with VC funding?

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#467

Post by krisdol »

jcranmer wrote: post #85
ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going to 'Diet USA' is likely more seamless and convenient. I lived in Canada for several years and I honestly think that's a good description for it, you cannot really tell whether you are in Michigan or Ontario if you don't look at the road signs.

Or visit the museums, where all the exhibits have both French and English text. As an American who worked in Canada for a summer, I can honestly say that the two countries are so similar you're surprised by any minor differences that do come up.

Have you been in Quebec? Montreal is more like a central European city than anything in the US. I haven't been to Quebec City but I gather it's not much different.

It's also starkly different if you look at share of wealth. Class divisions are smaller in Canada, noticeably so.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#468

Post by Swizec »

zzleeper wrote: post #439
Swizec wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> US citizens also contribute a higher percentage of their income to local communities than immigrants do I don't know, man. The state of California and the federal government take their rightful 38% share from my income. I'm not a citizen. My girlfriend also pays her rightful 38% share of income. She is a citizen. And my income is a bit higher so in absolute terms I contribute more as an immigrant than my girlfriend…

Also, unless a migrant stays in the US forever, they won't receive the benefits of their social security contributions. EG: I pay 6.2*2=12.4% as social security, but unless I contribute for at least 10 years, those contributions are lost. So many H1B holders end up paying 12% more in taxes than their American counterparts...

Oh that's a good point I didn't even think of! I have to pay all those social things and will likely never see them again. Like throwing money in the furnace.

And unlike an H1B, my O-1 visa is not dual intent. That means I get to stay in constant purgatory. Haven't really looked into it, but I probably should.

Either way, legal immigrants contribute just as much, if not more, as citizens do.

Edit: Looks like they support sending social security payments to foreign countries, if you meet requirements. That's neat. https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10137.pdf

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#469

Post by kafkaesq »

curiousfiddler wrote: post #448

If you don't provide opportunity and a good civil environment to brilliant/enterprising people, they will find a way elsewhere. And once Vancouver or any other city starts working for them, Silicon Valley will lose its exclusivity. The thing to note here is that this response from YC is not a political one, but a response that came out of market demand; it is pretty significant if it works out.

The thing to note here is that this response from YC is not a political one,

Indeed. It wasn't formulated as political -- but the intrinsically the move does have significant political import (as a form of "voting with one's feet", as it were). Which has the potential to send signals that signs, slogans and marches (alone) cannot.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#470

Post by vkou »

ajmurmann wrote: post #460
nl wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously this is a joke. In case it isn't: the war that would follow an attempted Calexit might be slightly detrimental to startups in the Bay Area.

Why would there be a war? Large parts of the country seem very resentful towards California. Seems like both sides would be happier without each other. Edit: I obviously don't think a Calexit will happen but I'm just curious why you think it would result in a war.

Barring an Ecotopia-MAD-civil-war, the federal government will never give up the naval bases in California.
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